Naples Fishing Report

My crew from Tuesday decided to book another trip Saturday and we ended up catching the big girl you can see in the picture. Been a while since we caught a good sized Goliath which is what they wanted to do, so I tried out some new wrecks a little further to the south than I usually run…ended up paying off which was good. Ended up snapping a rod in the process though…which was not good haha. Fishing is great at the moment…people are finally starting to head back to the beach after the Red Tide disaster…hopefully the word spreads that things are getting back to normal. Fishing should keep getting better and we should continue to get busier with season approaching. Be sure to check out the contact page of our website to see how you can save 8% off your next fishing charter by booking early!

We were able to squeeze in our morning charter yesterday before the seas picked up. The wind has been steadily blowing out of the East for the last several days…blowing out whatever remains of the Red Tide. Visibility has drastically improved and the nearshore fishing is finally starting to get better. Fish are finally starting to move back in to some of the nearshore wrecks. We caught this Barracuda for our “Big Fish” yesterday. We were also able to land several grunts, snappers, and multiple triple tail on the way back to the dock. The triple tail were undersized with the biggest one being about 17”. Overall I would say things are looking like they are going to continue to get better!

Yesterday I fished with Keith and Big Jim. We started off the morning fishing a reef about 14 miles Offshore from Naples. Fishing started off very slow and after about an hour of not catching much other than a couple grunts; we decided to move in a little closer to shore. The next spot was some artificial structure in about 36’ of water. As soon as we dropped our lines down at the second spot we started catching Mangrove Snapper to 16”, Gag Grouper to 22” and Spanish Mackerel. Finished off the morning with a limit of Mangrove Snapper. Didn't land any huge fish, but did get broken off by some nice ones.

Went out on a half day charter with a group of 4 yesterday. The good news is there are still fish out there to be caught! My day started off early getting down to Wiggins and trying to catch some live bait. Went straight out to 18' of water where some birds were working and used a Sabiki rig to catch Threadfin Herring. I then went to the beach where there were literally thousands and thousands of Pilchards (small ones). We fished multiple spots from 3-12 miles offshore. We caught Mangrove Snapper, Grunts, Blue Runners, Gag Grouper, Pork Fish, Spanish Mackerel, and had a shark on for a few minutes. It was good just to catch some fish after the red tide. It was also good to see the bait starting to show back up again. Fishing should continue to get better!

Went on a full day shared charter yesterday. We weren’t sure that we were going to be able to make it happen with the way the weather has been this month. When we got to the pass the seas were surprisingly calm, so my crew elected to go for it. We went through a few miles of fog, but it cleared and it was a straight shot and smooth boat ride out to 75 feet of water.

Ended up landing several undersized red grouper, some big mangrove snapper, porgies, gags, and an Amberjack. The one porgy was 22” and makes the rest of the snappers seem small in the picture...he was a little tank!

Around 3 0’clock the winds started gusting to 20 knots and the seas started to pick up. We elected to head to the barn! The boat ride in wasn’t as smooth or dry as the ride out haha.